Soon Mi Yoo: The Modality of Meaning in Essayisticity

Michael Renov’s discussion of the term essayistic in nonfiction autobiographical film and video lended a lucid and meaningful context to approach the cinema of Soon Mi Yoo. The essayistic is less concerned with the categorization and classification of genre, but rather to analyze the methods of the creation of meaning. “Rather than assemble a model to which a series of works might be forced to conform, the intent is to ask how and under what conditions meaning is produced in certain texts” (Renov 09 col2). Essayistic elements are very prevalent in both films of Mi Yoo that we viewed, in the nonlinearly progressive construction, both in the strong reliance on the expressive function of associative dialectic between visual imagery and sound.

Soon Mi Yoo’s films are very writerly in their construction. Issues and conclusions are not laid out in a linear friendly way that will clearly inform an audience of a certain idea. Instead, presentation is often convoluted and circular in some sense. Issues still arise and are discussed, but concrete conclusions are often left for the audience to interpret or consciously reason out on their own. “Repetition, dispersion, and digression maintain their hold throughout; there is a conclusion but no end” (Renov 12 col1). The essayistic is then an interrogation, a research, a discovery through an “active critical process,” which the ‘reader’ or watcher is a part of (Renov 11 col2). This is very much evident in Faith, as the shifting emotional memories of Faith and Soon Mi Yoo lead us through the narrative of the piece, in a circular and sometimes repeating structure. As Tournon writes of Montaigne’s writing practice, and which seems to be telling of the essayistic, “thought can abandon its theme at any time to examine its own workings, question its acquired knowledge or exploit its incidental potentialities” (Renov 11 col1).

Very much a part of this active readerly process is the expressive function of the relationship between the visual and auditory components of Soon Mi Yoo’s films. This oppositional strategy to the conventions of traditional documentary allow a much more nuanced and interesting approach. “The expressive dimension remains sorely underdeveloped in current documentary practice, the play of the signifier held in dutiful harness to the signified” (Renov 09 col1). In the films of Soon Mi Yoo which I have seen, it seems that often the voiceover contains the primary portrayal and discussion of the ideas in the piece, while the corresponding visual elements serve an associative, expressive role. This is especially evident in Faith, in the way that the layered dual voiceovers reminisce, while seemingly disassociated, or sometimes thematically tangentially related scenes present themselves on screen.

The expressive dimension is possibly better exemplified in the nuanced and sometimes difficult to comprehend associations between different components of Soon Mi Yoo’s films. In Ssitkim: Talking to the Dead, there is a recurring and logically inexplicable sound of tearing or scraping that occurs periodically throughout the film. Separate from this sound, and never occurring at the same time, is the written list of the names of the dead. This list progressively becomes more and more worn and difficult to read as the film goes on. Suddenly it struck me that the ink comprising the text appeared as if it were partly scratched off, as if with a knife or other sharp instrument, and then this idea associated itself with the scratching sounds heard earlier. I’m sure that the subtle nuanced associations that contribute in a compelling and profound way to the meaning of the film are excessively abundant for those that are willing to look. As Sally said in our seminar, one can’t fully analyze Soon Mi Yoo’s films with our logical cognitive selves, we must look more deeply for the nuanced and emblematic sources of expressive meaning as well.

I am very fond of the work of Soon Mi Yoo, with its intricate, carefully and intelligently constructed, and subtly nuanced and artistically expressive attributes. I can already see some strategies she uses apparent in my own work. I have always naturally gravitated towards a writerly (and essayistic in some regards) method of presenting my ideas in a piece, choosing to attempt to allow the viewer to read their own ideas and reasoning into whatever ideas or themes I present. Accomplishing this through subtly nuanced associations between different aspects of the film is something I have attempted before as well. However, I would be very pleased to be able to make my visual metaphors, associations, and other subtle expressive attributes as intelligent and carefully intentionally constructed as I perceive Soon Mi Yoo’s to be.

Works Cited:
Ssitkim: Talking to the Dead. Soon Mi Yoo, 2004. video, color, sound, 34 min
Faith. Soon Mi Yoo, 1999. video, color, sound, 12 min
Renov, Michael. “History and/as Autobiography: The Essayistic in Film & Video,” Frame-Work: The Journal of Images and Culture 2 n3 (1989): 6-13.